Blinded Ascent - V.M. LaFountain

In the heart of the French Quarter, Friday is a ghost that refuses to die.

For Cyprian, a brilliant artist trapped in the suffocating rhythm of a recurring loop, every morning begins with the same oily thrum of static and the crushing weight of a debt he didn't create. Forty thousand dollars. One crumbling studio on St. Ann. And a predator in a pinstripe suit who knows exactly how to make a man feel small.

But some frequencies are meant to be shattered.

When a misplaced rage and a chance encounter with the magnetic Elias-and his towering, iridescent alter-ego, Delta Dawn-breaks the cycle, Cyprian discovers that his brushstrokes hold a power that the "Thoom" can no longer contain. To escape the gravity of a toxic past and a literal cage of time, he must stop painting for survival and start painting for war.

From the shadow of ancient, moss-draped oaks to the neon-soaked stage of Bourbon Street, Cyprian must navigate a landscape of high-stakes art, visceral magic, and a liberation that smells of turpentine and expensive champagne.

The climb is steep, the lights are blinding, and the masterpiece of his life is a Saturday he'll have to bleed for.